Frederick+Springe

In October of 1926, 34-year-old Sophie T. Peterson underwent an illegal abortion in the Chicago office of Dr. Frederick Springe. She was taken to Mercy Hospital, where she died at the end of November. Springe was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury in December.

Springe was born in 1857 in Germany to Christian and Wilhemena (Gertz) Springe. He graduated from medical school in Germany in 1885. Springe immigrated to the United States through New York and was naturalized in Chicago on Oct. 12, 1904. He died in Chicago from stomach cancer on Dec. 17, 1828.